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Fantasy turns into bad dream for Old High
November 26, 2007Saturday night wasn't all right for Wichita Falls High School basketball in the Division I finals of the 27th Annual Fantasy of Lights sponsored by State Farm Insurance.
(And yes, that is the official name of the tourney)
A taller, more athletic opponent in Abilene started the night off by handing the Lady Coyotes their first loss of the season in convincing fashion with a 61-28 victory.
It's not all bad for Coach Joe Golding and his now 7-1 team though. Abilene also handed two-time defending champion Liberty Christian, led by two-time MVP Whitney Hand, a similarly lopsided 41-29 loss in the opening round on Friday.
The Coyotes shared the Lady Coyotes' fate, though much of the damage wasn't due to eventual champion South Garland's play -- it was self-inflicted.
A year removed from Deron Anderson, the Coyotes' offense struggled, sputtered and eventually disappeared with several players missing lay-ups in the final moments.
And even though 6-7 post Rory Burt stuck out the most due to his height, he had plenty of help in a 37-31 loss that could have and really should have been avoided.
Both teams will bounce back though and hopefully, be better for having gone through what they did.
Learning experiences really suck, don't they?
Note: Lost in the shuffle of all this, the Rider Lady Raiders finished third in the Division I girls bracket as Coach Jeff Martin continues to rebuild the program.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Oh, no! Not a text message...
November 16, 2007Why would anyone in their right mind spend fifteen minutes tryin' to type some (expletive deleted) they could've called and said in five seconds? Plus, it involves typing with your thumbs! Which I just don't approve of. - Gin Rummy, The Boondocks
I couldn't have said it better.
As a matter of fact, my boy Rummy just put a voice to something I'd been thinking ever since the text phenomena began.
Typing with your thumbs -- give me a freaking break.
Maybe I'm just old and set in my ways, but it's just irritating to sit there hunting and pecking for this letter and that letter. And due to this, every time I get a text, I dread having to respond.
Sure, it's more economical to send a text in the daytime rather than use your anytime minutes. But, who has time to waste on a full-blown text conversation?
Ever argued via text message? I shudder to what misinterpretations result from all those OMGs, LOLs and KMAs.
However, despite my objections to the contrary, it's here to stay.
I imagine that centuries from now, a time capsule will be found in the middle of a desert and inside will be a cell phone with hundreds of unanswered text messages.
And that cell phone will probably be mine.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Ride to Vernon
November 15, 2007There's not a whole lot to look at on Highway 287 North from Wichita Falls to Vernon - that is, unless you happen to find wide-open spaces inspirational.
The relative solitude of that ride is where the snappy, informative patter of 1230-AM ESPN Radio's "The League" is born.
Rick Taylor and myself get together every Saturday morning for a 45-minute, mobile pre-show meeting. Rick usually takes the community-oriented, personal angle of a story while I seek out the logic - or illogic - of a given circumstance.
It's been great so far and now that Burkburnett's own Brint Richter, our resident new guy, is on the team, things will only get better.
Feel free to check us out from 10 a.m. to Noon as we give our take on whatever's going on - from high school football to what-the-heck is wrong with Pacman Jones and everything in-between.
Maybe I'm wrong about the wide-open spaces.
I'll get back to you on that.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Oh where, oh where did my Starbury go?
November 14, 2007Another day, another mess involving the New York Knicks.
A lot of people, like my television partner Johnny Burns, aren't big fans of the NBA and can't wait until the season's over. Unfortunately, the source of their discontent is the brand of self-inflicted trouble for the league is famous for.
I hold out hope for the game, its embattled commissioner and its troubled stars -- like Stephon Marbury.
Initially, I gave him the benefit of the doubt when Starbury chose to ally himself with clothier Steve & Barry's in order to provide a well-built, affordable shoe -- $14.98 before taxes, by the way -- for all you sneaker enthusiasts out there.
Maybe he turned the corner, I said to myself. Perhaps with age, Starbury also found maturity.
Wrong.
Staging a walkout, with the permission of hopefully-soon-to-be-fired coach Isaiah Thomas or not, harkens back to his pre-Steve & Barry's behavior.
Supposedly, he also has "a lot of stuff" on Thomas. And if it's anything more shocking that the sexual harassment and general boobery we're already aware of, it wouldn't surprise me a bit at this point.
Sure, the Knicks' team, coach and upper management all stink on ice, but Starbury is still cashing checks, isn't he?
Including the one from Steve & Barry's.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Baby Mama Drama is eternal
November 10, 2007Baby Mama Drama not only crosses racial lines these days - from Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry (nine baby mamas) to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (two baby mamas) - it can also follow you to the grave.
Take the case of Notre Dame icon George Gipp.
That's right. Things are so bad at Notre Dame that even the Gipper's got drama.
Gipp, who was immortalized by Knute Rockne's legendary, "win one for the Gipper" speech, died from pneumonia and a strep infection in 1920 during his senior year at Notre Dame.
Yet, 87 years later, his eternal slumber came to halt thanks to baby mama drama.
There was a rumor that Gipp had fathered a child - Bette Bright Weeks of Crown Point, Ind., who died last January at age 86.
Sports author Mike Bynum discovered, interviewed and introduced Weeks to Gipp's surviving relatives prior to her death. Later, Rick Frueh of Chicago, Gipp's great-nephew, consented to his exhumation for a paternity test.
In the end, if this had all been an episode of the Maury Povich Show, the host would exclaim, "George Gipp, you are not the father!"
Maybe that was a little crass, but so was exhuming his body.
While Frueh holds to his claim that this was for the benefit of the families involved, Bynum chose to contact ESPN. The network then filmed the exhumation for an upcoming special about Gipp, though both Frueh and Bynum deny profiting from it.
Yeah, right.
Still, there's a silver lining.
The Gipper didn't get caught up after all.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Grasping at Sonics
November 08, 2007NBA commissioner David Stern is sticking his nose in the Seattle SuperSonics' -- but namely the city of Seattle's -- business, but is it too late to garner any effective change?
On Thursday, Stern blasted city and state officials for letting things deteriorate to the point where the team could be the Oklahoma City Sonics sometime in the near future.
According to the embattled commish, if the Sonics move away from the Seattle, the NBA would likely abandon the city as well. In other words, Seattle won't get the Cleveland treatment administered by the NFL when the Browns transformed into the Baltimore Ravens back in 1996.
This may or may not be good news for the people of OKC, who showed they could support an NBA franchise by babysitting the Hornets for the rebuilding city of New Orleans the past two seasons.
In reality, this feels more like a last-ditch effort by Stern to regain some of the credibility he lost in the referee scandal -- and a transparent one at that.
Ultimately, it's not Stern's decision anyway and he should probably just exercise his right to remain silent -- just as he did at the outset of the Tim Donaghy mess.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Old grey dudes stirring it up
November 06, 2007The 1972 Miami Dolphins might not be on the field anymore, but they still know how to cause a ruckus.
Maybe it's a sense of entitlement, or perhaps paranoia, which drives them to pop their heads out each year to cast doubt on anyone who dares approach their NFL milestone.
New England Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel even went as far to dismiss former Dolphins coach Don Shula's suggestion that an asterisk should accompany an undefeated season on their parts with a crack about the rantings of retired coaches and washed up players.
Testy, testy.
Anything to increase the size of that mountainous chip on the Patriots' shoulders will do, it would seem.
Beyond decades-old entitlement or paranoia, perhaps it's a brilliantly-conceived mind game. After all, getting the Pats more focused on going undefeated than just winning each week might distract them -- but I doubt it.
Emperor Palpatine (Pats coach Bill Belichick) just doesn't allow for distractions and will continue to joylessly beat his charges' egos into submission each week before they take the field.
Oh well, Coach Shula.
There's always the officially NFL-licensed voodoo doll.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Hold the asterisk, please
November 02, 2007When Barry Bonds eventually takes his rightful place into Cooperstown, there may be a nasty little surprise waiting on him.
Marc Ecko, who purchased Bonds' 756th home run ball for $752,467 chose to place an asterisk on the ball after fans voted, via a special website, on its fate
Bonds said Thursday that he would boycott his induction if the Hall accepted the ball in its current condition -- and personally, I don't blame him.
As protests, or more specifically publicity stunts, go, this was a weak one and simply lacks the significance to have such a long-lasting effect.
The more we find out about BALCO and steroids themselves, the harder it is to narrow the focus of our disgust on one particular person, much less just one sport.
I haven't seen the ball and have no idea what kind of ink the asterisk is composed of. But, if it's not permanent ink, why not just wipe it off?
If it is permanent, then why not just turn it around?
There are a lot of easy answers to this rather silly problem -- hopefully the people at Cooperstown will see that too.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Nas plus Dog Chapman equals two morons
November 01, 2007Rapper Nasir Jones and celebrity bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman probably don't know one another and it would appear they'd have little in common.
That is, if you exclude the fact that they're both morons.
Chapman is at the center of a media firestorm after using the word "nigger" to not only describe his son's girlfriend (or rather her character as Chapman later put it), but also anyone who might hear him using the word.
In the telephone conversation obtained by the media, Chapman seemed concerned that someone hearing him use the word would threaten everything he'd worked for, but never mentioned that he shouldn't be using it anyway.
Strangely though, it's difficult to get too upset with Chapman after hearing about Jones' choice of same word as the title of his yet to be released new album.
And yes, "nigger" is indeed a racial slur and not merely a term of endearment or some random euphemism.
So, while Chapman rushes to apologize to any and everyone for his use of the word, Jones sits unscathed awaiting his album's December 11th release date - there's something wrong with that.
The problem with the so-called, "n-word" is all the confusion that it causes.
Who can use it?
When can they use it?
Can other people have permission to use it?
How do you gain that permission?
Once you do gain permission, does that translate across the board?
Now that's a lot of questions with few definitive answers.
However, the bottom line is that Chapman's racial slur can't just morph into Jones' chosen form of artistic expression in the next sentence. Even though it usually does.
And that just takes us right back to where we started -- with not just two morons, but millions.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
